Nationalists in Romania have adopted a piece of clothing traditionally worn by villagers, especially women. However, Romanians with a liberal vision say it is an attribute of a cultural identity that belongs to everyone.
It inspired painter Henri Matisse and designer Yves Saint-Laurent. British singer Adele wore it in a photoshoot for Vogue. Louis Vuitton used it for one of the company’s seasonal luxury product collections „By the Pool.”
More recently, the Romanian blouse - traditionally worn by villagers, especially women - has gained a new type of followers: nationalist politicians in Romania enchanted by popular garments as a sign of devotion to the nation and its traditions, writes The New York Times.
Diana Sosoacă, a far-right politician, has made the blouse a central part of her political brand and rarely appears in public dressed in anything else. George Simion, the nationalist candidate who lost the Sunday presidential elections, is also a fan of the blouse, as are many of his supporters.
Călin Georgescu, an ultranationalist who won the first round of a subsequently canceled presidential vote last year, focused his campaign on TikTok videos showing him dressed in a blouse riding a white horse, among other activities.
A Symbol Perverted by Nationalists
For those with a liberal vision, this has become a problem, and many have stopped wearing the blouse.
Alina Dumitriu, the head of an NGO in Bucharest that helps people living with HIV, said she used to like wearing the traditional blouse but removed it from her wardrobe because "it was hijacked by extremists and turned into an ideological weapon."
"It was part of our tradition and belonged to everyone, but they turned it into a nationalist symbol of exclusion for pure and moral people," she said.
The American newspaper notes that nationalists often accuse liberal-leaning Romanians of selling traditional moral values and bowing to the European Union, of which Romania has been a part since 2007. Their efforts to appeal to tradition failed to secure Simion's presidency, who decisively lost to Nicușor Dan, the centrist mayor of Bucharest.
While some progressives have abandoned the blouse, many others who dislike its recent association with the far right believe that refusing to wear this blouse would allow politicians to confiscate an important part of Romania's common culture.
"My grandmother and great-grandmother used to sew and wear the blouse long before the far right took it," said Daniel Stanciu, who runs a small business in the field with his wife. They work with elderly seamstresses from rural areas and sell embroidered blouses with traditional motifs.
He recently received a call from a woman interested in placing an order and congratulated him for being "on the right side," with "the patriots." However, she decided not to buy after he clarified that he does not support Simion, Stanciu recounted.
The blouse "belongs to all of us, not just them," he said.
Inspiration Source for Fashion Giants
Apolitical fans of the blouse are less disturbed by its political connotation than by what they see as a cultural attribute by powerful foreign fashion houses.
Andreea Diana Tănăsescu, who manages a Facebook page dedicated to the blouse, "La blouse roumaine", said she has no problem with Yves Saint-Laurent drawing inspiration from Romanian blouses because "he was an artist," credited Romania, and transformed rural attire into "haute couture."
But she was disturbed by Louis Vuitton and the Chinese fast-fashion brand Shein for copying Romanian patterns and cuts without mentioning that they were inspired by Romanian tradition. Last year, she launched an online campaign demanding that foreign companies obtain Romania's permission to copy its blouse patterns.
The blouse "is like a birth certificate," each piece identifying the wearer not only as Romanian but, depending on the colors and embroidery patterns, as belonging to a certain village or region, Tănăsescu said.
"We've been through decades of communism and many other hardships, but the Romanian blouse has always remained the same and is part of all of us," she emphasized.
Asserting Romania's exclusive ownership of the blouse may upset Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and other Eastern European nations who wear embroidered blouses that, at least to the untrained eye, closely resemble the Romanian blouse.
Experts insist they are very different. Doina Isfanoni, an ethnologist at the Romanian Village Museum, spent decades traveling around the country cataloging unique Romanian blouses.
In 2022, UNESCO declared the blouse part of the "cultural identity" of Romania and its neighbor Moldova, a former part of Romania, as noted by the NY Times.
Politicians Wear False Clothing
Isfanoni mocks politicians' efforts to exploit the traditional Romanian blouse for electoral purposes, noting that they often wear cheap imitations made by machine rather than authentic hand-embroidered articles.
Nationalists like Simion and Sosoacă "want to show that they represent the real Romania and its traditions," but "this is just a parody of tradition" aimed at "deceiving people," she said.
In Romania, where a wealthy elite living in cities like Bucharest has long been disconnected from the rural population, embracing the traditional blouse has provided an easy way to display a connection with the masses.
The last queen of Romania, Marie, who was born and raised mostly in the UK before marrying the heir to the Romanian throne in 1892, as well as other foreign members of the royal family, often wore traditional blouses "to show they are true Romanians," in 1892, the expert mentioned.
Although embraced by politicians as a sign of authenticity and a connection with ordinary people, the blouse is in many ways extremely elitist due to its price. An authentic, hand-sewn model can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on the fabric and embroidery complexity.
The high price of hand-embroidered blouses has paved the way for a wave of machine-made articles from China and other parts, making competition difficult for traditional artisans. Many of these are elderly women from rural areas who can work for months on a single blouse.
Nicoleta Uta, an ambulance assistant from Domnești, a village north-east of Bucharest, is passionate about the Romanian blouse. She realized that the craft of making blouses was at risk of disappearing when the only person left in her village who knew how to make one was an 87-year-old woman.
She asked the woman to show the young people in the village how to sew a blouse and started a course at her home. On a recent afternoon, 16 girls started, fascinated by this craft, learning how to make a traditional Romanian blouse. She said the best student was a teenager, but his family had moved out of the village.
Teaching teenagers to sew not only keeps traditional crafts alive but also helps them stay away from mobile phones for at least a few hours, said Nicoleta Uta.
"They learn to focus and feel joy and fulfillment when they see what they have created," Uta said.
"Politicians all wear fake blouses and set a bad example for everyone. We need to return to traditions, but to real ones, not traditions distorted by politics," she added.
T.D.